Would love to know if I’m the one playing DH wrong, or if this is just how the class is like…
Basically, I keep struggling with it whenever I’m fighting a strong rare, or too many semi-strong mobs at once. I’m not a new player, and I know how the classes work… I just remember DH being MUCH better at healing itself back in BFA last time I tried it…??
I have picked the talents recommended for DH in PvP on Icy-Veins, and also made sure to pick the “survivability” option whenever there was a choice.
The class just kind of feels like it’s a matter of “killing the opponent before you inevitably die… Which you WILL if you don’t end the fight quickly!”.
Don’t DH have any self-healing besides the TEEEEENY TINY BIT you get from leech, and the occational rare orb?
I wanna pick up DH or Monk, but I MUCH more prefer the DH fantasy over Monk, so I’m trying to get it working…
Hmmm it just doesn’t really feel viable that the “fix” is to go tank spec instead… And you are not alone, when I look online others say “go tank spec for solo PvE” as well…
The problem I have with that though, is that essentially what is being said is “Havoc DH is unusable and utter **** and you shouldn’t play it”…
Why have a spec in the game that dies to anything that isn’t weak mobs…
People have also said things like:
“Practice when to use Blur and Darkness correctly.” “Interrupt and stun to help survive.” “Kite to avoid damage, and then pull some low lvl mobs for health.”
But I mean common… That is all either “workarounds”… Or basic advice that counts for ANY class in the game. And those other classes will STILL survive even without REQUIRING that you kite, interrupt, or stun.
What I’m hearing is that unless I wanna play the tank spec 24/7… Then I will die as a DH in solo content. Just like how Arms Warrior needs a healer babysitting constantly, Havoc is the same way. The difference there though, is that Warrior still has another DPS spec to go to. So I guess DH isn’t a viable class for me.
It’s just so silly to think that you can’t play Havoc DH unless Blizz decides to HEAVILY buff leech or orb drop rate, meaning the spec is unplayable most patches.
I have ALWAYS had difficulty soloing a single, high HP mob as havoc. Pulling in additional, low HP mobs to kill and generate soul shards is something I’ve always had to do, since Legion. Other than that, use collective anguish legendary, kite for a bit if you’re at low health and eyebeam is on CD, then eyebeam and heal yourself back up.
Depends on the enemy but picking the leech talent, having the Collective Anguish legendary in most cases keeps me up. (Even better when you go for the Cycle of Hatred talent as that makes eye beam useable more than before so you get to refill more of your hp with Collective Anguish)
Having more enemies around you can kill/stun with chaos nova also helps with survivability with the shards you heal yourself with. If you’re a Night Fae you also get a small leech boost on the enemy from the hunt(25% leech on the enemy, 30second duration, the skill itself has a 1m30 cooldown) and if you’re Kyrian you can get more of the shards(you can combine that with the talent that gives you 30 fury per shard you consume, as well as have chaos strike generate new ones; though I’ll admit I’ve never seen anyone use it since Battle for Azeroth and it’s completely possible that the talent was nerfed and/or people never played anything that wasn’t called a meta talent, I personally used it alot at shadowlands launch as that was really helpful with how much weaker we were than in a .3 patch ).
My only survivability issues playing that way were in Jailer’s gauntlet layers 5+ solo where everything hits like a truck even in 278 gear and enemies spawn faster than I can kill them. (Worth pointing out that I always had over 20% versatility this expansion, and that’s a 10% passive damage taken buff, which is always nice)
Could you maybe list some enemies that gave you issues? Anything that can help identify the problem, maybe with some optimization it can work well.
Depends on the gear, DH in full mythic gear so around 276-278 item lvl can solo all rares in zereth mortis, pull anything and survive it etc you know what i mean. It is because more dmg you do more you heal from leach. Also yea DH was way more durable in BFA and Legion. Blade dance passive dodge for 1sec 100% dodge was insane. Also leach was nerfed in SL too, it used to be higher by about 10%.
According to wowhead, it was actually 5% throughout the entirety of BFA, then buffed to 10% in 9.1 (wowhead link). Which is weird, because I remember it was being higher, or at least felt like healing more back then. Maybe wowhead is wrong.
Soul Rending talent was also about 40 % if I recall correctly. It’s been cut in half, so there’s that. This is only while meta is up ofc, but with Demonic you have quite a bit of meta uptime. Also, they removed Blade Dance’s guaranteed dodge within the first second of using it - That’s more of a skill-based use though such as for PvP and didn’t really save DHs from dying while soloing content.
Soul Rending was insane though. In Legion it was even crazier at 70 % and that was after a nerf lmao.
The other thing was that, by the end of BfA, we had the essence that reduced the CD of meta significantly (if we chose to use it), meaning more uptime.
I’m not a new player, and I know how the classes work… I just remember DH being MUCH better at healing itself back in BFA last time I tried it…??
And you are not alone, when I look online others say “go tank spec for solo PvE” as well…
That is all either “workarounds”… Or basic advice that counts for ANY class in the game. And those other classes will STILL survive even without REQUIRING that you kite, interrupt, or stun. 
